


hold me in the night

by iceprinceofbelair



Series: a force more powerful than gravity [2]
Category: The Fall (TV 2013), The X-Files
Genre: Detective Inspector Stella, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Sickfic, soft lesbians being soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-14 00:58:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16029689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iceprinceofbelair/pseuds/iceprinceofbelair
Summary: Scully takes care of Stella when she's sick.





	1. Chapter 1

When Scully arrives back at her flat, it’s dark and quiet. She had half expected Stella to be awake, working on that murder case she’s been struggling with for the past few weeks. Scully discards her coat on the back of the sofa and toes off her shoes, far too exhausted to bother tidying up. She has another shift in a few hours and she promises herself that she’ll tidy up after that. She probably won’t though. She’ll sleep. She’ll tidy on her day off. Probably.

For a brief moment, Scully considers sleeping in her scrubs but decides against it. She’s already made peace with the fact that she isn’t planning to shower but sleeping in the clothes she’s been wearing around the hospital all day is a line she isn’t quite willing to cross. Not while Stella is here. In her college days, she would absolutely collapse on the couch in her scrubs and head straight out to her next 12 hour shift.

Stella is indeed asleep. Her bare legs are tangled in the duvet and her top half is exposed, covered by the Bon Jovi t-shirt that Scully had stolen from Mulder in their first year as partners. It swamps Stella the same way it had always swamped Scully and she looks adorable. Her blonde hair is the way Scully likes it best - imperfect. Her curls and waves fan out across the pillow haphazardly and Scully only refrains from running her fingers through them for fear of waking her.

She does, however, risk beginning to gently untangle Stella’s legs so she can cover her properly with the blanket and, in doing so, feels the warmth of her skin. In itself, it isn’t unusual. Stella typically runs quite warm. But she’s sleeping at a reasonable hour and apparently her sleep so far has been restless. Scully isn’t sure if it’s the doctor or the partner in her that makes her hand reach out to feel Stella’s forehead but she’s glad for whatever instinct got her there.

The thermometer soon confirms that Stella is running a moderate fever and the fact that she doesn’t stir when Scully manoeuvres it into her mouth confirms that she’s definitely sick. Gently, Scully shakes Stella’s shoulder.

“Stella,” she murmurs, receiving a tired mumble in response. “Stella, wake up. You’re running a fever. I need you to take some medicine.”

Stella’s blue eyes blink up at her, tired and a little dazed. It seems to take all the strength she has to push herself up onto her hip. She kicks half-heartedly at the duvet until her legs are free and she drapes them over the side of the bed, toes limply brushing the carpet. Scully cups her cheek softly and offers a consoling smile.

“How are you feeling?”

Stella blinks lethargically and gives a deep sigh which dissolves into a chesty cough. Scully sits next to her and rubs her back.

“I’ve been better.”

Scully frowns. “Did you feel sick this morning?”

“A bit,” Stella shrugs. “Thought it was my period.”

“When did the coughing start?”

“Around lunchtime. It was just a tickle at first; I didn’t think it was serious.”

Stella looks genuinely apologetic when she turns to look Scully in the eye. Scully kisses her temple.

“You should have called,” she says but that’s as far as her scolding will go tonight. They’ll talk about this more when Stella is feeling better. "Does your chest feel tight?"

Stella shakes her head.

"Any trouble breathing or pain in your chest?"

"No, just coughing."

Scully's doctor brain has other questions it wants to ask but she manages to dissuade her mouth from asking them. For the moment, she's satisfied that all she can do for Stella tonight is feed and medicate her. She'll give her a proper check-up in the morning when they're both a little more aware.

“Have you taken anything?” She asks, finally.

Stella shakes her head again. “Thought I could sleep it off.”

Scully refrains, barely, from rolling her eyes. Of all the people she could have fallen in love with, she had to choose someone who stubbornly refused to take proper care of themselves. Twice. Well, they say everybody has a type, right? Maybe her type is stubborn sweethearts.

“I’ll get you some fever reducer and something for your cough but you really should eat something first,” Scully says, watching Stella grimace at the thought. “Something light. I could make toast or I think there might be some crackers and cream cheese left.”

“I’ll have crackers,” says Stella, standing up. Scully doesn’t try to stop her, just fetches her warm robe from where it’s hanging on the hooks on the back of the door.

While Stella seeks out her food, Scully boils the kettle and raids the medicine cabinet. The stereotype that doctors have the worst first aid kits is definitely true in Scully’s case. Or rather, it was. Until she had somebody else to take care of and now you’d be hard-pressed to find a better stocked medicine cabinet in all of London.

Stella is sitting on one of the stools at the kitchen island, admirably forcing down her crackers with minimal helpings of cream cheese. Scully sets a cup of hot tea in front of her and settles down next to her to drink her own.

In the quiet, Scully sneaks glances at Stella as she eats. The flush high on her cheeks is obvious now that the lights are on and provides a stark contrast to the dark circles under her eyes. She looks like she could sleep for ten years and still be exhausted. Scully wonders how well she’d have fared if this case hadn’t consumed her. Perhaps she wouldn’t look quite so exhausted if she’d been getting a reasonable amount of sleep to begin with.

But Scully doesn’t like to dwell on the pressures of Stella’s work. There is little she can do to lessen them and it’s not like she doesn’t remember many sleepless nights trying to figure out how she was going to explain their latest exploits to Skinner. Besides, she can hardly critique Stella’s haphazard sleeping patterns when she’s signed up for two eight hour shifts in one day.

To her credit, Stella doesn’t dither over the medicines Scully pushes towards her. She downs the liquids like vodka shots and banishes the taste with the last of her tea. Perhaps the quiet, almost professional way she’s handling this is merely a symptom of how she’s feeling but Scully suspects it’s something of a defence against the vulnerability she is feeling at having Scully take care of her like this. This is the first time Stella has been truly ill since they started dating and it’s certainly the first time she’s been unwell in Scully’s flat. Until now, Stella has always been private about her weaknesses. Scully feels truly touched to be trusted like this.

Scully puts their mugs in the sink and the cream cheese back in the fridge. Everything else can wait. She looks expectantly at Stella who nods and pushes herself to her feet. When they reach the bedroom, Stella sheds her robe and climbs into bed while Scully begins stripping out of her scrubs. She slips into her favourite blue pyjamas (the vest has a picture of a bunny) and settles down next to Stella who turns off the lamp at her bedside.

In the dark, Scully curls her body against Stella’s back, slipping an arm over her stomach to pull her close.

“Can you take a half day tomorrow?” Scully asks against Stella’s neck, knowing better than to suggest she call in sick.

Stella hums. “Maybe. You have another shift?”

“In a couple hours,” Scully confirms.

“I didn’t mean to keep you up,” Stella breathes, sounding further away by the second. Scully kisses her shoulder.

“It’s okay,” she sighs. “S’not your fault you’re sick.”

It’s quiet for a few minutes after that and Scully is so sure Stella has fallen asleep that her voice startles her.

“Thank you, Dana,” she says and Scully’s name sounds so beautiful in Stella’s tired voice that she finds herself wanting to cry. She’s so fucking in love.

“Shh, sleep,” she says, feeling a smile spreading across her face. Then she takes her own advice, and sleeps.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Scully is quick to turn off her alarm in the morning, thankful to note that it hasn’t woken Stella. One quick touch of the back of her fingers to Stella’s cheek confirms that she’s still feverish and Scully doesn’t miss the uncomfortable sound of her breathing. More than anything, she wants to lie down again and curl up close to Stella and hold her until she feels a little less miserable. But even if she could find someone to cover for her at work at such short notice, she’ll never be able to convince Stella to do the same. So she resigns herself to making Stella’s morning as easy as possible.

She measures out a dose of cough medicine and leaves it next to two paracetamol pills on Stella’s nightstand. While the machine goes about making her morning coffee, she fills a glass with water and sets it down next to the medicine. When she’s satisfied that Stella is taken care of, she gathers her clothes for the day and heads into the living room so she can dress without waking her.

It’s strange for Scully to be awake before Stella. She is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a morning person. Not like Stella, who is up with the lark every morning. So she puts her feelings of unease down to the peculiarity of the situation and tries not to worry too much about Stella’s wellbeing. She reminds herself that Stella has been looking after herself long before Scully came into her life but she’s a doctor and she loves her and she can’t help but worry about that horrible tightness in her breathing.

She pours her coffee into her thermos and is halfway out the door before she stops. She fishes a blank prescription sheet out of her pocket and unclips the pen from her lanyard strap to scribble a quick note, tucking the corner under the glass of water.

 _take these and don’t work too hard._ _please_ _call me if you need anything. -D x_

~

At 10:47, Eleanor, one of the A&E receptionists, tells Scully that she has a phone call waiting in Dr Mitchell’s office. So she asks Eleanor to let everybody know where she is and settles down in the office chair with the receiver to her ear.

“Dr Scully.”

“Dana?”

Stella sounds like she’s been crying.

“Hey,” Scully says softly. “Are you okay? What’s happened?”

Stella takes a deep, shaky breath and Scully thinks that maybe she’s _still_ crying. “I’m sorry to call you like this. You’re busy, I-”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Scully interrupts quickly before Stella can talk herself out of having this conversation. “I’m here. What’s the matter?”

“I don’t know. I feel awful and you said to call but I feel stupid for calling but I know you wanted me to and-”

“Stella, it’s okay,” Scully says and she hears Stella’s shaky breathing on the other end of the line. It hurts not to be able to hold her. “You’re feeling worse?”

Stella swallows so deliberately that Scully can actually hear it. “Yes.”

For a moment, Scully struggles to snap herself out of Doctor Mode. There are a thousand questions racing through her brain. She wants to ask Stella if she’s in pain, what kind of cough she has, if she thinks she still has a fever, if she’s feeling dizzy or nauseous. But she swallows those questions because she can ask all those things when she has Stella tucked up in bed.

“Do you want me to come pick you up?” She asks instead.

There’s a moment of silence during which Scully can almost hear Stella’s own internal debate. She knows that Stella doesn’t like to show weakness, especially not in front of her colleagues and Scully understands that. But she also knows that, if Stella is calling her right now, she must feel terrible and desperately need to go home.

Unfortunately, Scully is also painfully aware that there is nothing she can say right now to convince Stella that she needs to be in bed. This is a choice she’s going to have to make on her own.

“Please,” Stella whispers, so soft that Scully almost doesn’t hear her but she certainly isn’t about to ask her to repeat herself.

Shocked by Stella’s honesty, all she can say is, “I’ll be right there,” before she hangs up.

~

When Scully walks into the police station after excusing herself from work on the basis of a “family emergency”, she’s greeted by a receptionist she’s never seen before and wonders briefly where Joel is. It takes her several minutes and a phone call to one of Stella’s colleagues to convince this lady - whose name tag says she’s called Marcie - that she is, in fact, Stella’s partner and that she really needs to see her right now. She’s only allowed back when DC Elliot Manson, with whom she’s had drinks on more than one occasion, comes to collect her from reception.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Elliot says as she leads the way to CID. “I took a report to her about half an hour ago and she looked ready to collapse.”

Scully’s heart is beating furiously in her chest. All the worst case scenarios are racing through her head. Even though she knows Stella probably has the flu at worst, she can’t help but worry about bronchitis and pneumonia and pleurisy.

“Has she said anything about pains in her chest?” She asks, unable to stop herself.

“She hasn’t said anything to anyone beyond ‘I’ll be in my office’ and ‘there are seven comma splices in this report, Elliot.’”

“Seven?”

“Believe it or not, it’s an improvement from last time.”

Scully smiles, glad that her chat with Elliot has calmed her nerves a little. As they approach Stella’s office door, Elliot hesitates and Scully feels herself start to worry again in case Elliot is trying to prepare her for how sick Stella might look.

“Listen,” Elliot says, making Scully’s heart rate skyrocket. “I don’t want to overstep my boundaries or anything but I just wanted to say that I’m glad she has you. I’m sure you know by now that she’s never been good at taking care of herself and it’s just...nice to see her trust someone.”

Scully doesn’t know what to say. She’s touched and suddenly feeling very self-conscious. Before she can respond, however, Elliot clears the air with an awkward _“anyway”_ and knocks on Stella’s door, opening it for Scully when Stella’s muffled voice invites them in and closing it swiftly behind her.

Stella has her head in a report when Scully walks in and is making lethargic notes in the margins. She glances up at Scully briefly but doesn’t seem to register her. Several seconds tick by before Stella looks up again as though doing a double take and her entire demeanor relaxes.

“Dana,” she says by way of greeting. She sounds stuffy and her cheeks are flushed.

Scully smiles kindly as she weaves around Stella’s desk. She bends down to kiss her forehead and takes note of the persisting fever. When she pulls back, Stella looks conflicted.

“You were working,” she says, like the reality of the situation is just hitting her now that she’s seeing Scully in her scrubs. “I’m sorry. I didn’t-”

“Shh, Stella, please,” Scully says, crouching down and taking both of Stella’s hands in hers. “It’s not your fault. You’re sick and I’m a doctor. This is exactly where I should be.”

Stella’s lips twitch slightly into an imitation of a smile. Scully looks up at her fondly, admiring how beautiful she is managing to look when she’s feeling so dreadful. It’s unfair, really. Every time Scully is sick, she looks like a pitiful drowned rat. But Stella is admirably holding on to her typical grace despite running a 102 degree fever.

Scully kisses Stella’s forehead again as she stands and grabs Stella’s coat from the back of her chair. “Ready?”

Scully holds Stella’s coat up for her to slip into and gently maneuvers her hair out from under the collar while Stella does up the buttons. When she’s finished, Stella falls into Scully’s open arms and gives a wheezing sigh.

“Thank you for coming,” she mutters, tucking her forehead into the crook of Scully’s neck.

“Thank you for calling me,” Scully counters. “I know it wasn’t easy.”

Stella pulls back and Scully intertwines their fingers. They leave together, hand in hand, and Scully thinks about how lucky she is. She is grateful for everything Stella has given her - love, affection, companionship - but having her trust is the most precious gift of all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> apparently i have no self-control so this will be three parts ^-^


	3. Chapter 3

“Right,” says Scully as she ushers Stella inside, sweeping her windswept hair out of her face. “Back to bed, I think. I’ll make tea.”

She leaves Stella to her own devices while she sets about preparing tea in the kitchen, seeking out the honey while the kettle boils. Stella hasn’t mentioned anything about a sore throat but, judging by that cough, Scully suspects she probably has one. With the tea freshly made, she grabs a washcloth from under the bathroom sink and soaks it with cool water, laying it out over the edge of the sink while she takes Stella her tea. 

When she reaches the bedroom, Stella is in the midst of pulling on another of Scully's oversized shirts - one of her own this time that she’d bought at a U2 concert. The sight of Stella, who would be the first to tell you that she thinks U2 are awful and boring, drowning in her XXL band t-shirt makes Scully forcibly smother a smirk.

Scully sets the tea down and pulls back the covers for Stella who raises a pointed eyebrow and rolls her eyes but lets Scully tuck her into bed without a word of complaint. She takes a sip of her tea and sets it aside while Scully sits on the edge of the bed and begins gently pressing her cool cloth against Stella’s cheeks and forehead and then the back of her neck. 

“You’re running quite the fever,” she says as she re-folds the cloth to bring the cooler parts to the outside. She presses it against Stella’s temple and sighs. “How are you feeling?”

Stella sniffs, leaning into Scully’s touch and closing her eyes. “Miserable,” she admits with a small shrug. 

Scully pouts. “Sorry,” she says quietly. “Good thing you have a live-in doctor, hm?”

As hoped, this makes Stella smile. She catches Scully’s eye. “Thank you,” she says, eyes shining. “For not saying you told me so.”

“I wouldn’t,” Scully says, shrugging. “I know what your work means to you and I can’t help but admire your dedication even if I do want to beat some sense into you sometimes.”

“Well,” says Stella hoarsely. “I’d probably deserve that.”

Scully doesn’t say anything, just puts the now lukewarm cloth aside and picks up a hair tie from Stella’s bedside table. Swiftly, she ties Stella’s hair up in a loose bun and kisses her softly on the forehead.

“You took the medicine I left out for you this morning?” Scully asks, tucking the front strands of Stella’s hair, which are too short to catch with an elastic, behind her ears. At Stella’s nod, she goes on. “You’re due for another dose about now. Then maybe you can try to get some sleep?”

Stella catches Scully’s hand, intertwining their fingers. “I don’t think I can eat right now,” she says, looking at Scully meaningfully.

“Have you been sick?”

Stella shakes her head minutely. “Just nauseous.”

“Okay,” says Scully, running her thumb across Stella’s knuckles. “Well, I’ll just keep a close eye on your fever and we can take it from there. Let me get a read on it.”

Scully plucks the thermometer from where she’s left it on the dresser and rinses it under the bathroom tap. While she’s there, she also soaks the cloth again and, with Stella propped up a bit against the pillows to ease her cough, lays it across her burning forehead. Then, she tucks the thermometer under Stella’s tongue and waits. 

The silence settles comfortably around Scully’s shoulders, keeping her warm like a blanket on a cold day. She enjoys these moments with Stella - soft, peaceful moments. Stella Gibson, Scully quickly realises, is her best friend in the whole world. She feels like they could sit together in silence for days on end without ever feeling the need to fill it and this thought alone fills Scully to the brim with warm content.

“Just over 102,” says Scully with a soft tut. She shakes the thermometer sharply to return the liquid to its base temperature and observes the fevered flush on Stella’s cheeks with a worried sigh. “Or, um, 38.9-ish,” she adds, converting to celsius in her head as quickly as she can.

Stella smiles fondly. “It’s okay. Your fahrenheit thermometer is one of the few Americanisms I’ve learned to live with,” she says teasingly and Scully rolls her eyes.

“You British are so intolerant of outsiders,” Scully teases back. “At least we don’t put an imaginary F in lieutenant.”

Stella hums. “I’ll give you that,” she says with a soft laugh which all too quickly dissolves into an obviously painful cough. 

Scully rubs Stella’s back comfortingly as the doubles over, the deep, damp sound of her cough making Scully physically wince in sympathy. 

“Oh, Stel,” she says softly, handing over her tea. “That sounds awful.”

“Sounds worse than it is,” Stella chokes, rubbing her chest with a pained wince. “Well, no, actually. It sounds just like it feels.”

Scully kisses her temple. “Every time you try not to worry me, it increases my worrying exponentially,” she says calmly. “I can’t treat you if you’re not honest with me.”

At this, Stella’s eyes unexpectedly well up with tears and Scully is momentarily horrified with herself. She is a terrible, awful person and she is absolutely going to hell. 

“I’m trying not to hide anything from you,” says Stella, sounding more vulnerable than Scully has ever heard her. “I’m not good at asking for help. I- I don’t like relying on people. But I’m trying, Dana. I promise.”

Scully finds herself wanting to cry too. “I know how hard you’re trying,” she says honestly, thinking back to how proud she had been when Stella had called her to say that she was feeling worse. 

When she’d written that note, she hadn’t expected Stella to actually take her up on the offer. Since the day they met, Stella has always been very self-sufficient, sometimes to the point of self-destruction. While Scully admires her commitment to her own independence, it gives her a warm, pleasant feeling in her stomach to be granted access to the private, personal parts of Detective Inspector Stella Gibson’s life.

The past two days have marked an incredible step forward in their relationship and Scully feels this change with burning intensity right in the centre of her chest. She is so happy, so beautifully happy. 

“I love you,” Stella says, earnest and quiet and beautiful.

Scully swallows down tears of joy. “I love you too, Stella. I really, really do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading and for your sweet comments! this story is from the bigger stella/scully universe i'm writing at the moment so, if you're interested, check out that series ^-^

**Author's Note:**

> i got a little carried away with my musings about my multi-chapter stella/scully fic so here's a lil ficlet of them being cute in that universe


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